Monthly Archives: January 2014

Today’s post features a socially conscious musician/artist who raises interesting questions about art, music, social activism and spiritual practice. You will be introduced to Glenn Weyant in a couple of short videos. This feature is the beginning of a shift in my approach to this blog. Up to now, most post have mainly been devoted to exploring the interrelationship between art and Zen practice. In the future, I will not spend so much time with theory and focus instead on actual art and actual artists. There is so much interesting work going on out there, locally as well as globally, and I aim to make my readers aware of it.

I have always used the terms “art” and “spiritual” in the widest possible ways and will continue to do so in the future. To my mind, almost any activity can be approached as an art and so if you know of some art or artists who you think should be covered in my blog posts, please let me know. For now, enjoy the videos below. For those familiar with the work of John Cage, be sure to listen to the last part of the second video.

To leave a comment, click on the white bubble at the right of the title. To make an anonymous comment, write “anonymous” when prompted for a name. You can also send comments to me directly.

Over the past five years, The Vista Zen Center has helped support Soroptimist International of Vista with their annual event to raise awareness about the horrors of human trafficking. Two years ago, the Center organized an art show to be viewed during the Human Trafficking Awareness Walk sponsored by SIV (see video of the Human Trafficking Awareness Art Exhibit at the 2012 event at the Art and Zen Video Channel (click on tab at top of the page). This year I helped create a short video based on a Poem written and read by Kaye Van Nevel, who is the Chair of the Human Rights/Advancement of the Status of Women Committee” in the Vista branch of Soroptimist International.

Below is the link to the video. After that you will find a poem by Jon Wesick, a prolific poet who is also a member of The Vista Zen Center. You can find another poem by Jon in a post titled “POEMS AND IMAGES FROM FIVE VISTA ZEN CENTER ARTISTS” published in Sept 2013 (See the Archives list to the right of the page). Jon’s poem is loosely based on The Heart Sutra, one of the chants that has historically been central to Zen Buddhist practice. It also deals with the human trafficking issue and I think you will see why it is a perfect fit with Kaye’s poem.